If there's one thing we've learned about Riverdale, it's that the hit CW show isn't afraid to go there. (This is the show, after all, whose primary plot in season one centered on the murder of Jason Blossom, who had been shot in the head by his father.) But a new villain was just introduced in season two, and he is far less dramatic than the Black Hood. In fact, he's downright common — and that makes his terror all the more real.

He is Nick St. Clair, an old friend of Veronica's who visits Riverdale with his parents and instantly upends the lives of our core characters. Not only does he openly flirt with Veronica in front of her boyfriend, Archie, but he attempts to push himself on her even after she's said no. He flouts drugs in front of the other kids — though the Jingle-Jangle was supplied by one Reggie Mantle, so Nick is not alone in his culpability there. But he also slips a roofie into Cheryl Blossom's drink, and if it weren't for Veronica, Josie, Melody, and Valerie, he would have raped her. What ensues is a different kind of horror story, in which Penelope Blossom openly gaslights her daughter, and tries to deny that an assault ever took place.

Riverdale is by no means the first show to address sexual violence, or even to give its female characters agency after an attack, and there are plenty of subplots in the show to keep us busy for the whole of season two. So why approach this perennially important topic now, and why in this way? Teen Vogue spoke to Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa about how the show's writers decided to introduce Nick St. Clair, and why they wanted to approach Veronica and Cheryl's specific storyline. He also talked about how it feels that these episodes are being released concurrently with the allegations that are now being made daily, and how the show will continue to talk about this violence as season two continues.

Teen Vogue: What inspired the storyline with Nick St. Clair coming to town, and trying to assault Veronica and Cheryl?

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: I think it was a couple of things. With more episodes in season two, we got a chance to build up the world a little bit more. One thing we alluded to a lot in season one is Veronica's "bad girl" past. We'd always wanted to tell a story where someone from her past came to Riverdale and was in conflict with Veronica, because Veronica had changed. We finally got a chance to do that in season two.

It's always good for us to be in dialogue with issues and social commentary. So we started talking about Nick St. Clair coming back, and one of the original ideas was why should we tell this story, and how would we tell it? The idea was, "what if characters from the Archie comic met characters from a Bret Easton Ellis novel?" We thought of Less Than Zero, and Rules of Attraction, and American Psycho, and what it would be like if one of those characters arrived in Riverdale. Thus was born Nick St. Clair. One of the ideas was what if this guy comes to Riverdale and tries to rape Veronica? The story evolved with Cheryl, and that then Veronica and the Pussycats would save her from that.

We thought this would be a relevant story to tell. Especially, though, we wanted Nick to be foiled and Cheryl to be saved. That was really important to us. We wanted the Riverdale girls to triumph against this force of darkness. In a way, he's as much of a predator as the Black Hood. That was another parallel we wanted to draw.

TV: That definitely struck me, that Nick's danger presents itself as pretty commonplace, unfortunately. He's not fantastical. A lot of viewers are, unfortunately, going to know people like him every single day. How did you balance him against the Black Hood?

RAS: One of the things that we do on Riverdale is we move through a story very quickly. Originally, Nick St. Clair and the effects of his visit were going to wrap up in one episode. In writing the story and in thinking about the characters, and thinking about what we depicted, and what issues were at play, it became a deeper story. In [season 2, episode 6], we're absolutely still dealing with the aftereffects of that. That's something that we track throughout the season — the repercussions from what Nick tried to do to Veronica and then almost did with Cheryl. The balance is honoring what the story is, and following the story, and tracking the emotional repercussions of it.

TV: One of the ways you continue the story is by Cheryl's mom trying to gaslight her, and following the victim-blaming that ensues. How did you develop that part of the story? That, especially, is an aspect of rape culture that a lot of people don't talk about.

RAS: Sadly, victim shaming is absolutely one of the things that happens. There was something really dark about Penelope Blossom, that in an effort to not have another shadow fall on the Blossom family, she would almost deny what happened, rather than face it. The Blossoms are such a dark family, and in a way, that's the darkest thing Penelope could do.

Again, we're going to track that throughout the rest of the season. This was a big story for us, and we're gonna be tracking the effects of it in the short and long term. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Veronica and Cheryl both were victims. Even that discussion amongst them is interesting, and a real one, in our research that we've done.

RAS: Amanda's voice in the room, we definitely saw the analogs in this story to Sweet/Vicious. This was something that she'd dramatized and written about before. Sadly, a lot of writers in the room have had experiences like this. It's stuff that, unfortunately, some of us have had firsthand experience with. Then Madeleine and I had talked about it as well; she wanted to release a PSA.

Unfortunately, it's all over the news. We wrote this story before the Harvey Weinstein scandal. It's not like this didn't happen before Harvey Weinstein. Unfortunately, it's been happening, and you can't turn on the news or open a paper without reading about another instance of date rape or rape or victim shaming or sexual harassment. It's something that is very present in our lives.

TV: How did you approach the filming of these episodes? A lot of actors are doing really tough, really crucial work this season. How did you work together to make sure everybody felt safe and cared for while going through these emotions?

RAS: We're constantly in dialogue with the actors. There's always a writer on set. We always have table reads for the scripts. Madeleine and I had talked about this storyline ahead of time. It's keeping the lines of communication open, and I think everyone wanted to tell this story. It's even more relevant now than it was when we did it, but I think everyone thought it was important and wanted to tell it.

TV: To go back a bit: It's Veronica and the Pussycats who save Cheryl, as opposed to a knight in shining armor figure. Why that choice?

RAS: That was really, really important to us. Archie is the hero, but when we did the slut shaming story last year, that was Veronica and Betty being there for each other against Chuck. They very easily could have said to Archie, "You're on the football team. Chuck Clayton's on the football team. He's doing these things," and Archie could have beaten up Chuck Clayton. We know that Archie can punch through walls of ice. We didn't want to tell that story again. Female empowerment and female friendship is really one of the hearts of the show; that felt a lot more empowering. Because [Nick] was sort of a friend of Veronica's, it felt important that she be a part of saving Cheryl. I think it's again honoring the strong female friendships, and the themes of empowerment that we hope we dramatize and illustrate. We really wanted Veronica to be able to give this guy his comeuppance. And yeah, the Pussycats are the greatest. It was nice that they got into the act as well.

TV: One of the things that really struck me is the difference between Nick trying to force himself on Veronica, and how he roofied Cheryl, and tried to rape her. Both are terrible acts. If viewers are watching this, and recognize either one of these instances, whether from their own lives or from a friend's life, do you have any advice for them?

RAS: First of all, don't blame yourself. Second, talk to people, if you feel comfortable doing that. Three, hopefully what this storyline shows is that Cheryl's not alone. Veronica's not alone. They're not alone. Sometimes victims feel such shame, and don't want to share their stories or their experience, for whatever reason. People don't believe them, people say, "Don't ... " Penelope says, "Nothing happened." We've been hearing that from the women and the men that are coming forward right now [in real life]. Some have said, "At the time, I tried to say something, and people said, 'That didn't happen,' or 'Don't talk about this.'" I think what one of the messages is there are people who will believe you. There are people who will stand with you. There are people who will fight for you and with you. If some people take that from the episode, I think that'd be great.

TV: As you said, you wrote these episodes before a lot of these real-life stories coming out. How does it feel that these episodes are airing right in the middle of this storm?

RAS: Again, it's sort of a sad confluence that this story is resonating now, given the accounting that's happening. I wish it weren't as relevant, because I wish this wasn't happening and didn't happen, but it is. If people, especially young people, are seeing [this storyline] and taking comfort from it, or getting strength from it, or even opening up conversations about it, that's something that is a positive thing and is great. Again, I wish we weren't so relevant in this one respect, unfortunately.

TV: A lot of what the Ellis novels do is that they focus on heightened masculinity, while I think Riverdale has show variations of all the different ways masculinity can be. A lot of the allegations against men in power in real life are also taking down toxic masculinity, and abuses of power therein. How do you hope the female empowerment, and basically, the vanquishing of this machismo character, resonates with viewers?

RAS: It's funny. There's an episode that we just worked on, which is in the second half of the season, where Veronica says, "God, I am so sick of the toxic masculinity." There's a conflict that she's stepping in the middle of. I think a lot of the novels of Bret Easton Ellis, they do really amp up that toxic masculinity, where it is heightened, and it is villainous. It does feel like that calls for a separate but equal, and even greater, force to stand up to it. In our world, that's Veronica rallying the Pussycats.

It's almost like the movie Death Proof, the Quentin Tarantino movie, where Kurt Russell terrorizes these young women, and then, at the end, they band together and beat him to a pulp. That was a little bit the inspiration for it. It does feel like there's a particular brand of toxic, entitled masculinity that has no empathy, that has no conscience. That's what it feels like with Nick St. Clair, that he doesn't have a conscience. He doesn't even see what he's doing is wrong. That feels like that's kind of what we're attacking, as opposed to masculinity.

TV: When he tries to tell Veronica, "Oh, sorry, that wasn't me, I was in and out of rehab," it seems like an excuse. Do you have that backstory? Was he in rehab, or was he not?

RAS: That is the most Bret Easton Ellis moment to me. We have no reason to believe he was in rehab, and we have every reason to believe that he's a pathological liar.